[FM Discuss] Style Guide?

[Lana Brindley]

William Abernathy wrote:
> Hi all. I've been editing for the project for about a month. I am a 
> technical editor by trade, and thanks to the current economic miracle, 
> have plenty of time to donate to FLOSS Manuals.
> 
> As I've worked here, I've time and again been struck by the lack of any 
> agreed-upon style guide. Questions of style are, as far as I can tell, 
> addressed on an ad hoc, project-by-project basis. I believe this is a 
> problem that we need to rectify, and would like to propose some 
> solutions and hear your thoughts on the matter.
> 

<snip>

> 
> Thank you for considering this issue. I know that this will make my 
> editing task easier, I believe it will make your product better, and 
> strongly suspect it will attract more editing talent to FLOSS Manuals. 
> If people want to SIG this, that might be a good way to address it.
> 
> --William
> 

Hi William,

This is an awesome idea. I'm a professional open source technical 
writer. I've been lurking around on the FLOSS Manuals mailing list for a 
little while now, waiting for a project to pop up that I can get my 
teeth into.

Firstly, your idea is a great one. In my experience, writers like 
nothing more than to argue the finer points of grammar and spelling, 
word use, and what - exactly - constitutes word abuse. Having a style 
guide is the only way to successfully end an argument that would 
otherwise go on forever. It also means that the results of these 
discussions get set down and are used in future docs. No point going 
back over the same arguments every second week.

I am not going to try and convince detractors like Adam and Tomi that a 
style guide is the way to go. Simply put, the concept of producing 
documentation *without* a style guide is quite appalling to me. I know 
of no professional writer or editor who would even consider attempting 
to publish quality documentation without some kind of style guideline 
(be it an internal word usage guide, something like Chicago, or even 
just a preferred dictionary). I personally would be hesitant to 
contribute to any project that not only did not have a style guide, but 
actively prevented people from creating one.

All that said, as my very first FLOSS Manuals project, I would like to 
offer to help William with the development of a FLOSS Manuals Style 
Guide. I believe that no documentation project should go ahead without 
one, and so I think it's an appropriate place to begin.

Thanks William, for bringing this up.

Cheers,
Lana
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